Reports are questioning whether eSports can be considered real sports. Source: publicdomain.ne

The trade body for the UK’s games and interactive entertainment, Ukie, has released an eSports whitepaper today calling for the education of policymakers about the opportunities eSports presents to the UK.

The report made Government recommendations, including suggesting they: “integrate eSports opportunities into the government’s trade and investment work […] and proactively encourage major eSports business and tournaments to be established.”

The retailer counts around 1.300 stores distributed between the UK and mainland Europe, 5.100 employees in the UK and Ireland, of which 385 are employed at its headquarters in Basingstoke, Hampshire.

In Edinburgh, Gamestation on Princes Street, the flagship store of the company, had already been closed in late 2011.

However, as the retailers are refusing to release any comments, it’s understood that the GAME stores in St. James Shopping centre and Ocean Terminal are still open as usual.

Meanwhile, it has already been reported that about half of the 600 UK shops have been closed during the day, and it’s unclear whether the rest will stay in business.

The company’s website is currently no longer accessible, and it names MJA Jervis and SD Maddison as the appointed Joint Administrators.

Mike Jervis has commented: “Despite these challenges, we believe that there is room for a specialist game retailer in the territories in which it operates, including its biggest one, the UK.

“As a result, we are hopeful that a going concern sale of the business is achievable”.

GAME, which was founded in 1991 as Rhino Group, had already been rumoured to be in troubled waters as their credit worthiness came under scrutiny just a few days ago.

As a consequence, three main suppliers, Nintendo, EA and Capcom, blocked the distribution of their most recent releases to the retailer.

The overall performance of the company in the last few months has been abysmal, with a £18 million loss for the year to 31 January being blamed on high fixed costs and an ambitious international expansion.

Glasgow Commonwealth Games officials have confirmed that preparations are on track for 2014 in light of the difficulties surrounding this year’s event in Delhi.

Around 70% of the venues for 2014 are already in place, but a Glasgow Commonwealth spokesperson has defended the progress in Delhi.

They said: “It’s not uncommon for major Games to have teething problems in the run-up to the opening ceremony.

“Each Games is different, they take place in different countries with different cultures and different ways of working”

Scottish athletes have today confirmed that they will travel after being convinced that issues with the athletes’ village were being addressed.

The news follows a series of high profile withdrawals of British Cyclists including Wales’ Geraint Thomas and England’s Ian Stannard and Ben Swift, although continued reassurances from the Delhi organisers have receded the threat of a mass boycott.

The Delhi organisers have come under intense scrutiny in the last few days with concerns surrounding security and hygiene for the event, which is to begin in nine days time.

2014 delegates will play an observational role at the 2010 Games prior to the official handover ceremony and insist that they plan to proceed as scheduled.

“At Glasgow 2014, we are happy with our progress to date,” the spokesperson added.

“We’re a little under four years out from our opening ceremony and have a lot to do, but we believe we are on track to achieve our ambition – which is to deliver an outstanding, athlete-centred and sport-focused Games that will be celebrated across the Commonwealth, generate enormous pride in Glasgow and Scotland, and leave a lasting legacy.”

There is a familiar issue experienced by students: what to do when there are no classes, no work to do and no money in the drinking column. The answer for a good few is to game, and that is no longer just an answer for the geekier among us. Ever since Modern Warfare 2 overtook Avatar in Box Office sales, gaming has become a serious media.

So how does the world of student and gaming combine? In RestBYTE, a new student run website. Liam Anderson, a co-creator and the website designer for the project explains “we know you can get a review anywhere that tells you HOW good the game is. The problem is these 5 star games then over-exhert themselves on to us and we end up with poor grades. The answer is a website that advises how addictive the game is.”

On this premise RestBYTE has designed a rating system that includes: “unplayable”, “dont try this at home unless your an achievement or trophy whore”, “good dipping”, and “leave it till summer honey”! The aim is to be humourous but informative and to help students avoid a controller addiction over term time.

“There is the aim of total interactivity – forums and comment pages, within a user-friendly setting” states Anderson, which should make RestBYTE the first of its kind. The writing staff are keen however to remain cutting edge but realistic. “After all this is a free publication, we will be writing from our own stocks of games”: what comes across is the websites awareness that it may not necessarily review the must-have game right away but have a catalogue of hundreds of older games once it is up and running. The features sound intersting to, exploring the eternal debate of Guitar Hero v. Rock Band, 360 v. PS3, and what older console rocks!

The site is still taking its baby steps, but is hoping to collaborate with Edinburgh Napier as well as other Universities post launch.